Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodles are soft, chewy, buttery cookies with warm pumpkin spice flavor and a sweet cinnamon-sugar coating. Browning the butter adds a delicious nutty depth, while pumpkin purée keeps the cookies soft and tender.
They're the perfect fall cookie to enjoy warm from the oven with a cup of coffee, tea, or your favorite cozy drink, just like my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip mug cake.
The trick to getting the right texture is removing some of the excess moisture from the pumpkin purée before adding it to the dough. I did this when I made my banana pumpkin muffins too!
Once the cookie dough is mixed, it gets a quick chill before being rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked until the edges are set and the centers are still soft.
Quick Look: Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- 🔪 Prep time: About 25 minutes, plus chilling.
- 🍳 Cook time: 10–12 minutes.
- 🍪 Servings: About 10–12 cookies, depending on scoop size.
- 🥣 Main ingredients: Butter, pumpkin purée, brown sugar, flour, pumpkin spice, and cinnamon sugar.
- ➡️ Method: Brown butter → chill → remove moisture from pumpkin → mix dough → chill → roll in cinnamon sugar → bake → cool.
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy to moderate.
- 🍂 Best served with: Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or a glass of milk, or along with honey walnut cream cheese spread.
Jump to recipe
- Quick Look: Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Why This Recipe
- Recipe Ingredients
- Substitutions & Variations
- How to Make Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Shahida's Tips & Tricks
- How to Serve Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Troubleshooting & FAQs
- More Fall Sweet Treats
- Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Why This Recipe
- These snickerdoodles are quite simple and easy to make. Once you have your brown butter ready, it's pretty much just mixing things up!
- The dough only needs a short 10–15 minute chill, and the cookies turn out soft and chewy rather than cakey.
- Like my gluten free gingersnaps, these make a wonderful fall baking project and are perfect for sharing.
Recipe Ingredients
Unsalted butter: Browned until nutty and fragrant to create a rich, buttery base.
Pumpkin purée: Adds pumpkin flavor and keeps the cookies soft, but excess moisture needs to be removed first.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps create the cookie's texture. I used a mix of granulated sugar and dark brown sugar, for that deep, caramel-like flavor.
Egg yolk: Adds richness and helps bind the dough without adding too much moisture.
Vanilla: Enhances the buttery and pumpkin flavors.
Flour: Provides structure for the cookies. Use all purpose flour for best results.
Pumpkin spice: For that classic fall flavor. Add a bit of dried ginger powder for some extra warmth.
Baking soda: Helps the cookies spread and brown.
Cinnamon sugar: Coats the cookie dough before baking for a sweet, warmly spiced exterior. I like to batch make this and use it for lots of recipes during fall- especially my brown sugar cinnamon tortilla chips.
Check recipe card for quantities.
Substitutions & Variations
- Use light brown sugar if you don't have dark brown sugar, although the flavor will be slightly less caramel-like.
- Use homemade pumpkin spice or your favorite store-bought blend. I like to add a dash of gingerbread syrup whenever I have it at hand.
- Add finely chopped pecans or walnuts for some crunch. I like adding chopped brown sugar candied walnuts- they lend a nice texture to these brown butter snickerdoodles.
How to Make Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Step 1: Melt butter in a stainless steel saucepan over low heat. Cook until it foams and crackles, and keep stirring to make sure it doesn't burn.
Step 2: Continue cooking until the butter smells nutty and develops a golden-brown color. Transfer the brown butter to a glass bowl and place it in the refrigerator to cool.
Step 3: Place the pumpkin purée on a stack of paper towels. Use another stack of paper towels to absorb the excess liquid from the pumpkin.
Step 4: Keep replacing the paper towels and gently pressing until the pumpkin has a soft, playdough-like consistency.
Step 5: Once the brown butter has cooled, add the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk for about 1 minute.
Step 6: Whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla and pumpkin puree.
Step 7: Add the flour, pumpkin spice, fine sea salt, and baking soda. Mix just until the ingredients are combined. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Step 8: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line your baking sheet. Use a cookie scoop to portion the dough into a ball, roll in cinnamon sugar and place 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Step 9: Bake for 10–12 minutes, or until the cookies are set around the edges while remaining soft in the center. Cool on a wire rack and serve or store for later.
Shahida's Tips & Tricks
- Keep an eye on the butter while browning because it can go from perfectly nutty to burnt quickly. Stir the butter occasionally as it browns to keep the milk solids from settling and burning.
- Transfer the brown butter out of the hot pan immediately once it's ready and let the brown butter cool before adding the sugars.
- Don't skip removing excess moisture from the pumpkin purée. Keep absorbing moisture until the pumpkin has a soft, playdough-like consistency.
- Don't overmix the dough once the flour has been added.
- Chill the dough for the full 10–15 minutes before scooping. I always do this when I make pecan snowball cookies too.
- Leave 2–3 inches of space between the brown butter cookies because they will spread as they bake.
- Don't overbake the snickerdoodles. They should still look soft when they come out of the oven. That's what I always do when I make black forest cookies.
- Let them rest on the baking sheet for 5–7 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
How to Serve Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These pumpkin snickerdoodles are delicious straight from the oven when they're still warm and soft, but they're just as good once cooled.
Serve them alongside coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or a glass of milk. They also make a lovely fall dessert platter alongside other cookies and seasonal treats like Churro popcorn and Air Fryer S'mores dip.
Troubleshooting & FAQs
Pumpkin purée contains a lot of moisture. Removing some of that excess liquid helps control the moisture in the dough and gives the cookies a softer, chewier texture rather than making them overly cakey.
The butter will foam and crackle as it cooks. Once the foam settles somewhat and the butter smells distinctly nutty, look for golden-brown milk solids at the bottom of the pan. Remove it from the heat promptly so it doesn't burn.
That's normal. The browned milk solids are part of what gives brown butter its characteristic nutty flavor. Once cooled and mixed with the sugars, the texture will change.
The dough may have been too warm, or the butter may not have cooled sufficiently before the dough was mixed. Make sure the brown butter is cool and chill the finished dough before baking.
Yes. You can prepare the dough ahead and keep it chilled until you're ready to scoop and bake. If the dough becomes very firm after longer refrigeration, let it sit briefly at room temperature until it's workable.
More Fall Sweet Treats
If you tried this brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodles recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter 113 g
- 5 tablespoons pumpkin purée about 75 g
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50 g
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar about 65 g
- 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar for the cinnamon sugar coating
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 130 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
- Add the butter to a stainless steel pan and brown it over medium heat. The butter will foam and crackle as it cooks. Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Once it smells nutty and is browned, remove from the heat.
- Transfer the brown butter to a glass bowl and chill in the refrigerator.
- Place the pumpkin purée on a stack of paper towels. Use fresh stacks of paper towels to absorb the excess liquid, continuing until the pumpkin has a soft, playdough-like consistency.
- Once the brown butter has cooled, whisk in the brown sugar and granulated sugar for 1 minute, until the mixture resembles wet sand.
- Whisk in the egg yolk, vanilla, and prepared pumpkin purée.
- Add the flour, pumpkin spice, salt, and baking soda. Mix just until combined.
- Refrigerate the dough for 10–15 minutes.
- Scoop the dough using a heaping 2-tablespoon cookie scoop and roll each dough ball in the cinnamon sugar.
- Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2–3 inches apart.
- Bake for 10–12 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5–7 minutes.
- Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy warm or cooled.
Notes
- Watch the butter closely while browning because it can burn quickly once it reaches the browned stage.
- Transfer the browned butter to a separate bowl before chilling so it stops cooking.
- Removing excess moisture from the pumpkin purée is important for the texture of the cookies.
- The cookies should still look soft in the center when they come out of the oven.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5–7 minutes before transferring them to a rack.
